This invention relates generally to transaction card holders and more particularly to a device for holding a transaction card, such as a gift card, upon the upper margin of the wall of a container, such as a Christmas stocking or Easter basket. The holder is held to the container wall by gripping the upper margin of the container wall between the main body of the holder and one or more extension structures.
Transaction cards, stored value cards, or gift cards as they are commonly called based upon their intended use, have become popular gifts. Gift cards typically comprise a stored value card whereby a certain cash equivalent value is associated with a code or data stored upon a magnetic strip applied to the surface of the card. This stored value may be determined by the vendor prior to packaging and display for sale or is selected at the point of sale by the purchaser and loaded using a magnetic card reader/writer. While popular, gift cards are typically provided with a generic and impersonal design, typically identifying the associated merchant for which the card may be used to purchase merchandise and, therefore, are not personalized in view of the intended recipient.
Gift cards given as Christmas gift and placed within a Christmas stocking suffer a further disadvantage in that, due to their relatively small size, they often fall to the bottom of the stocking and can become somewhat of an afterthought as they are often located by the gift recipient long after the initial excitement of acquiring more prominently placed gifts within the stocking. Since the monetary value of the gift card may well exceed that of other gifts placed within the stocking, a gift giver may find it desirable that the gift card be placed in a more prominent location, while not detracting from the decorative aspects of a Christmas stocking, so that it may receive a more enthusiastic reception from the gift recipient.
Gift cards are often presented for sale on display racks in stores, each card or packet of cards being hung upon a display stand peg. A given area of a store will only support a certain number and size of display stands, given store traffic and other considerations, which makes allocation of display space an important marketing decision that may require selecting only certain high selling cards for display. Display of other items in the same store area will typically reduce the substantially finite space available for displaying gift cards and gift card packets.
In addition to the above considerations, gift card packets must fit within a set, allocated space in pre-existing displays. A gift card packet must not exceed 5.25″ tall and 4″ wide. These dimensions are an industry standard and are typically non-negotiable. In order to properly hang each gift card packet, the packet typically includes a J-hook hole (sombrero cut) with the exact dimensions of 1.875″ wide by 0.5″ high and be placed 0.1875″ from the top of the packet. Presently, the above requirements pertain to approximately 95% of all gift cards and gift card packets that are sold at retail.
What is needed, therefore, is a device that displays a gift card for purchase when hung upon a display rack within a predetermined and allotted display space but that also engages with the upper margin of a Christmas stocking to convert the gift card to a decorative element and to place the gift card in a more prominent location.